Optical Studies of Semiconductor Quantum Dots

Optical absorption (ABS), steady-state photoluminescence (PL), resonant Raman, and photoabsorption (PA) spectroscopies are employed to study quantum-size effects in II–VI semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) grown in glass samples. We observe a size-dependent shift in the energetic position of the first exciton peak and have examined the photoinduced evolution of the differential absorption spectra. The Raman shifts of the phonon modes are employed to monitor stoichiometric changes in the composition of the QDs during growth. Two sets of glass samples were prepared from color filters doped with CdS x Se1 − x and Zn x Cd1 − x Te. We analyze the optical properties of QDs through the ABS, PL, resonant Raman, and PA spectroscopies. The glass samples were prepared from commercially available semiconductor doped filters by a two-step thermal treatment. The average size of QDs is estimated from the energetic position of the first exciton peak in the ABS spectrum. A calculation based on a quantized-state effective mass model in the strong confinement regime predicts that the average radius of QDs in the glass samples ranges from 2.9 to 4.9 nm for CdTe and from 2.2 to 9.3 nm for CdS0. 08Se0. 92. We have also studied the nonlinear optical properties of QDs by reviewing the results of size-dependent photoinduced modulations in the first exciton band of CdTe QDs studied by PA spectroscopy.